


Without You

by stillusesapencil



Series: Javid's indie playlist [7]
Category: Newsies!: the Musical - Fierstein/Menken
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Feelings, Fluff and Angst, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-14
Updated: 2020-06-14
Packaged: 2021-03-03 23:22:13
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 872
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24723736
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/stillusesapencil/pseuds/stillusesapencil
Summary: “Davey!”At the sound of Jack’s voice, he spins, shoving his glasses back onto his face and reaching for Jack’s running form. They crash into each other, sticky bodies colliding, careless of the heat, embracing tightly.And then Jack seizes Davey’s face between his study artist hands and kisses him, firm and strong.
Relationships: David Jacobs/Jack Kelly
Series: Javid's indie playlist [7]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1616590
Comments: 2
Kudos: 37





	Without You

**Author's Note:**

> [Without You by Oh Wonder](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zLAhRiUeJ8E)

Summer in the city. The height of heat and humidity, windows open, sweat dripping. The sun beats down, bouncing off and radiating through the concrete buildings, building on itself until it smothers Davey, even as he flaps his t-shirt to fan himself. He glances back at the coffee shop, with its air-conditioned interior, but he’s supposed to wait outside.

He takes off his glasses, wiping perspiration from the lenses, squinting into the glare. 

“Davey!”

At the sound of Jack’s voice, he spins, shoving his glasses back onto his face and reaching for Jack’s running form. They crash into each other, sticky bodies colliding, careless of the heat, embracing tightly. 

And then Jack seizes Davey’s face between his study artist hands and kisses him, firm and strong. 

Davey smiles into the kiss, and kisses back. Their first kiss, rushed and frantic, was nothing like this. This is beautiful. This is love.

Jack takes Davey by the hand, and they walk down the streets of New York.

*

They have three days together, and they squeeze in all they can. They have a picnic in Central Park; they go to the Met; they gather with their friends; and they kiss endlessly. Davey always keeps one hand on Jack, like he’s afraid this will disappear, high on the fact that he’s allowed to touch. Jack never seems to stop grinning, and Davey keeps catching him staring, studying Davey like one of the paintings at the museum. 

“What?” he asks, every time. And every time, Jack simple grins and says, “Nothin’. Just looking.”

Davey takes him back to the apartment. They cook meals together--or rather, Davey cooks simple meals while Jack watches--and watch movies and snuggle on the couch. Race and Spot give them at least some privacy, going out for dates and to play poker with Albert and Finch. They also tease them with relentless determination, making goo-goo-eyes and loud kissy sounds. Davey and Jack don’t mind. It’s nothing less than they expected.

The first time they make love is in the half-dark of Davey’s room, slow and fumbling, eyes soft. There truly is nothing like being bare with the one you love, intimate and vulnerable and ineffable. Davey stares down at Jack’s face, at the way his eyes drift closed, his brows raising up, lower lip tucked in, and it’s the most beautiful sight he’s ever seen. 

With Jack by his side, Davey feels like he’s suddenly found an answer to a question he didn’t know he had. He spends so much time walking alone, dreaming Jack is home that to have him there, solid and real and tangible, is the greatest thing that’s ever happened. He holds steady with Jack by his side, no longer a little lost. 

The night before he flies out, they lie in bed together, Jack tracing his fingertips over Davey’s bare shoulder and arm, fixated on something Davey can’t see. 

“What is it?” he asks, quiet and slow.

“I was thinking--” his hand stops its wandering, resting on his forearm and wrist. “I was thinking about Santa Fe.”

Davey frowns. When they were younger and Jack said that it meant he was thinking about his dream of moving there. “What about it?”

“What it’s like without you.”

“Yeah?”

“It’s not...It’s everything I dreamed it would be. But now--now there’s you, and I. I don’t want to be on my own without you.” 

“I get it.” 

Jack rolls flat on his back, staring up at Davey’s white ceiling. “I’m literally living my dream.”

“I’m so happy for you.” Davey scoots closer to press a kiss on Jack’s lips. For a moment, he thinks he’s succeeded in distracting Jack, but then he pushes Davey off and says.

“This is important.”

“Okay.” Davey looks straight into Jack’s eyes. “I’m listening.”

“Move in with me.”

His heart pounds. “What?”

“Move to Santa Fe with me. I have an apartment, a job. There’s got to be a teaching job or a library job or something you can do.”

“What?” The words don’t sink in. 

“I did it. Come join me.”

Davey lowers himself to the mattress, burying his face in his pillow. Move to Santa Fe? Leave his family, his friends, his library, the school, the city he loves? It’d be such a big change, and Davey wasn’t prepared for the question--his mind spins. 

Being with Jack is perfect, amazing--but he’s not ready for that kind of change.

He lifts his head. “I can’t.”

“Why not?”

“Jack, you know I can’t, I can’t just leave--not with my dad--and Les--you know I can’t.”

Jack’s face collapses a bit, crumpling into frown lines. “I just don’t see why not.”

“Maybe just...think about it a little longer, and then maybe you’ll see.”

“Fine.”

Davey reaches out, places his hand flat on Jack’s chest. “Jack.”

“No, I’m fine.” But he won’t turn to look Davey in the eyes, even as his hand comes up to grasp and hold Davey’s own. 

The next morning they say their goodbyes and Jack flies out, back to his art and his life and the city of his dreams. 

And Davey is left behind, kicking stones in the street, alone and without him.

**Author's Note:**

> hrgh I can't seem to write anything happy,,,like ever  
> anyway hope you enjoyed some (all??) of this 
> 
> Also, just in case you're wondering, sml is my Davey and joey is my Jack. And Dave is Jewish and Jack is latinx. Just in case it hadn't been made clear enough in previous works. :)))))


End file.
